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Palm Beach Board of Realtors gives public access to MLS

Revamped website lets users browse property listings for first time.

Built in 2001 by Wittmann Building Corp., a house at 230 Wells Road was designed by Smith and Moore Architects. It is under contract, listed by Linda A. Gary Real Estate at $8.6 million. Photo by Andy Frame, courtesy of Linda A. Gary Real Estate

Posted: 8:13 a.m. Friday, October 23, 2015

Not every town has its own multiple listing service. But then, not every town is Palm Beach, where buying and selling high-end real estate is as much a part of the lifestyle as ocean breezes, cocktails on the loggia and neighbor-to-neighbor conversations at Publix.

Now, for the first time, the public can access the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service by using the group’s just-revamped website, PBBOR.com.

Founded in 1949, the board offers the most complete source of MLS-listed properties for sale on the island, said board President Clive Stuart-Findlay, an agent with Fite Shavell & Associates.

In addition to an MLS portal, the website includes links for consumers to access other information to help them buy and sell homes.

Users can search the MLS system by property type, price, neighborhood and other parameters to see properties represented by members of the Palm Beach group — nearly 1,200 listings at last count, although many of those are not on the island itself. The MLS focuses on properties for sale in Palm Beach but also along the Flagler Drive waterfront and in some affluent areas to the north and south. The organization is affiliated with the state and national associations of Realtors.

Although the old website provided information about the organization, the new one was designed to be much more user-friendly and interactive, Stuart-Findlay said. The former site also was aimed primarily at serving the group’s membership.

“We wanted this to be the go-to site for Palm Beach real estate,” Stuart-Findlay said.

The board’s MLS is completely separate from BeachesMLS, a much larger system serving the overall county and run by the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches. Most of the Palm Beach board’s members also belong to the regional group, Stuart-Findlay said.

In addition to MLS access, the Palm Beach site provides details about the board’s regular members and its affiliate members, who provide services to real estate agents — attorneys, home inspectors, mortgage bankers, title specialists, electricians and the like. There’s also a link to the digital version of the group’s Palm Beach Real Estate Guide, an advertising publication.

In the works for about a year, the new site went live this month and is still being tweaked. A special log-in area for board members provides them access to proprietary data.

Board MLS Chairman John Pinson of John D. Pinson Realtors, board Executive Vice President Tracy Mallette and MLS Director Michelle Sandmaier were among those who helped spearhead the redesign of the site, working with vendor Forte Interactive.

The website features a striking aqua-and-purple color scheme, bold graphics and the board’s new logo, which features a stylized palm tree, the organization’s name and the words “The Key to Palm Beach Real Estate.” The logo is part of the board’s overall rebranding campaign designed by Matthew Granat of Granat Design.

Prior to the site’s overhaul, the public could access a Palm Beach listing — if the property owner chose to make it available elsewhere — through portals such as Realtor.com that use data from multiple listings services.

But that information isn’t always updated in a timely manner, Stuart-Findlay said, especially once a property has sold. The sales information on the Palm Beach board’s site, he said, is “more current. It will be updated as the (local) MLS gets updated.”

The Palm Beach group has 570 members, 58 affiliate members and 450 MLS-only members, according to its membership roster.

The only other Realtors group in the county with its own MLS is the former Jupiter-Tequesta-Hobe Sound Association of Realtors, which in September finalized its merger with the massive Miami Association of Realtors. Renamed the JTHS Council of the Miami Association of Realtors, the north county group’s MLS system remains intact.

*

Sale pending — A two-story Mediterranean house at 230 Wells Road is under contract, according to an MLS update this week by broker Linda Gary of Linda A. Gary Real Estate. She listed the four-bedroom house with 7,984 total square feet at $8.6 million in May.

It’s owned by a limited liability company named Wells 2124 LLC, according to courthouse records. The property last changed hands for $6.5 million in 2012, when Gary handled both sides of the sale. Designed by Smith and Moore Architects, the house was built in 2001 by Wittmann Building Corp. on a lot measuring nearly a half-acre.

Gary couldn’t be reached. No word on the buyer, the closing date or the amount that will change hands.

*

Noticed — Corcoran Group agents Paulette Koch and Dana Koch have reduced the price from $5.3 million to $4.9 million for an updated 1920s-era house at 145 Kings Road. Renovated by two friends, Kathy Deane and Georgia Benevides, the Estate Section house was once part of the massive Cielito Lindo estate built for Jessie Woolworth Donahue. The house was priced at $5.85 million when it entered the market last fall.

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